Storytelling

My storytelling practice is interactive, uses lots of stuff – props, puppets, masks and costume. It has grown out of my love of narrative and improvisation. I am increasingly drawn towards the more public performance of stories and am currently developing my repetoire. My main and current use of storytelling is as a hugely valuable tool for education and engagement. At the heart of my work is the desire to tell a story, leave it in the hands of the listener and then hear what they do with it. The following examples span the last two years.

Penguin Small and The Firebird

The Fire Bird

This was part of a dramatic storytelling project that I delivered for Warwick Arts Centre. I spent a whole term with a year one class and their fantastic staff. We used Penguin Small (a character the children were already familiar with) as the central protaganist in a range of traditional tales. We explored language through movement, played games as part of the story, drew maps, made freeze frames, asked questions, pulled faces and at the end of it all without ever writing a single thing down the children re told the stories. Please enjoy !

Two years later I am still enchanted by The Firebird Story and have told a version not involving Penguin Small but taking inspiration from the childrens’ retelling at Little Heath many times over. Most recently at Deers Leep Wood where the families who came along became very active participants in a version that will always remain uniquely theirs.

Storytelling at Deers Leap

Greenholm Primary School Repayment of Kindness

This was a project delivered through Birmingham Hippodrome for two year 6 classes. The task was to find a story from Sierre Leone, tell it and then record all 60 children re telling it and in 2 day time frame. So first came my telling (after much research), then came the physicalising, the playing within the story, then we broke it down and small groups worked on a chunk, we drew pictures, we made notes, we performed it to each other, we ammended it, everyone got organised and almost in one take (per chunk) we recorded it

In the fantastic setting of Mosely Private Park at the end of the Summer I was invited to tell some tales in the family area. It was quite a weekend and saw the re establishment of my performance work with long standing collaborator musician Ann Jones.